


Perfect

by Ararouge



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24266635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ararouge/pseuds/Ararouge
Summary: SEASON FIVE SPOILERS!!Entrapta and Hordak need some rest.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 426





	Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for She-Ra season five!  
> Fluff One Shot

Hordak wasn’t used to feeling so disconnected. A small part of him, buried deep down, told him it was to be expected. Everything around him seemed like a blur of color and noise. The only thing he could really focus on was Entrapta. She was still holding tightly to his arm and talking, every once and a while looking back at him as she led him somewhere. Her voice made it through to him even if her words didn’t. He tried to focus on what she was saying. He wanted to focus.

“Hordak?”

He flinched, realizing she was looking at him in concern. “I’m fine. Please continue.”

She stopped walking and lifted herself up on her hair to get a closer look at him. “I don’t have to take you to Darla right now, I can bring you back to my tent. I have a bunch of tests running on the data I collected when I was in space! I’m sure some of them have finished by now and the results are ready.” She started to pull him in another direction. This time away from the center of camp and toward a large tent that had several metal rods poking out of it with wires hanging off. “The signal I was able to get from the main ship must have stopped, I’ll be able to know for sure once we’re there. You’re going to have to tell me how the neural network worked within the ship, I couldn’t…”

He couldn’t hear her words any more, just the sound of her voice. It didn’t scare him. He knew she was there. He could feel the warmth of her hands. His vision was fine, but he couldn’t focus on anything but taking the next few steps and following her.

“Brother!”

Hordak jerked to a stop and tightened his hand around Entrapta’s. Without thinking he pulled her behind him as a clone approached them. He would have raised the canon on his arm if she hadn’t been holding on to him. Then realized there was no danger any more. The clones were no longer under Prime’s control.

“Hordak wait!” Entrapta’s hair was suddenly around him, not tight enough to restrain him, but a comfort? She looked up at him with a smile. “This is Wrong Hordak! He’s been helping us.”

He glanced down at her. “Wrong…?”

“Yes Brother! I am free from Lord Prime, as are all of our other brothers!” The clone winked at him.

“Did he just wink at me?” Hordak asked quietly, leaning away from the clone who was slowly leaning forward.

Entrapta grinned, bringing herself up on her hair again. “Yes! He’s been learning all sorts of personal expressions. Bow and I found him on Prime’s ship when we rescued Catra. I think he may have gotten unplugged a little early.”

“And you call him Wrong Hordak?”

“Well I was looking for you.”

The clone in front of them seemed to somehow become more excited. “You are Hordak!?”

A few of the refugees that had been celebrating nearby started to look their way. “Yes”

“You gave yourself a name?”

Hordak flinched again. Horde Prime’s voice seemed to echo through his mind. Looking at the clone didn’t help. He was in each of their faces, their voices. Horde Prime was gone and yet he could still feel something there.

“Oooh, I never thought of that!” Entrapta looked at the clone with wide glittering eyes. “You should give yourself a name! The descriptor of Wrong Hordak is a bit of a mouthful.”

“I can name myself?” The clone looked shaken.

“You can name yourself.” Hordak said. “A name is important. You should spend time thinking of what you want to be called. There are thousands of clones on Etheria who have been cut off from Prime’s voice. Each of them will be like you, a separate person. All needing names.”

Wrong Hordak’s ears perked up and he clenched his fists. “I must help them understand what has become of Lord Prime! They must know about SheRa and their new freedom!”

“That’s a good idea-” Entrapta stopped talking as he rushed off toward the first group of clones he could see.

“He seems… precious.” Hordak snorted softly.

“He’s a really fast learner! Once he had his existential crisis he was pretty eager to help us stop Horde Prime.” Entrapta used a thin length of hair to wrap around his wrist. “Come on. I have an entire mobile lab set up here!”

Hordak followed behind her, this time sparing glances around the camp. There were hundreds of Etherians here. Some packing up to move back to their villages, some tending to the wounded. It felt strange to suddenly be at peace with so many of the people he had tried to kill only hours ago. He gave his attention back to the woman pulling him along. It was easier not to think about that.

Entrapta’s tent was bigger than the tents around it, and hers was the only cot inside. The reason became apparent immediately upon entering it. Machines and discarded Horde tech took up most of the space. Whirling and beeping was a constant chorus that would probably keep anyone else awake. As it was, Hordak didn’t remember Entrapta sleeping much anyway.

She didn’t let go of his wrist as she rushed to one of the beeping machines. “The samples that I collected from the clone vatrine on Horde Prime’s ship when we were trying to hack into his system have compiled a list of the organic breakdown.” She scanned the screen and pouted. “Most of these materials aren’t native to Etheria, the system can’t identify them.”

He walked over, looking at the screen. He blinked and they were standing in his sanctum. The dim room illuminated only by the screen. Then it was gone and he was standing in the tent, the floor was dirt beneath his boots and the ceiling was fabric.

“Hordak?”

He looked down at her again. “I’m fine-” A length of hair cut him off as it covered his mouth.

“What’s wrong?” She lifted herself up, moving in close. The hair around his wrist tightened.

He lifted his free hand and carefully moved the length of hair from his face. “Nothing is wrong. I am simply acclimating to all of this at a slower then ideal rate.”

She didn’t look sure, but loosened her hold. “Is this too much?”

He looked back behind her at the findings she wanted to show him. “No. Just… perhaps be patient with me?” He frowned, looking away from her as his ears dipped.

“Of course! You were always patient with me.” She grinned and he couldn’t help but smile back.

He looked at the machine she had built. “Here. This should help with your findings.” He pointed at the screen and indicated the graphic of the neural network she had been decoding. “The signal that was controlling the chips is gone but you can still use the link you put in place to access the files on his ship.”

“I would need his pass codes to gain access to the information stored there though. It could take weeks to decrypt it.” She was already typing on her keypad to bring up the link.

“You do not need to decrypt it. I know all of the codes.”

She gasped and spun around, throwing her arms around him again. “Hordak you’re a genius!”

He laughed, putting his arms around her shoulders. “Hardly. If you want access to his files, I am more than willing to give them to you.”

She squealed happily, only letting him go so she could jump up and stand at his height with her hair. “Best lab partner ever!”

“Entrapta?” The flap to the tent opened and Scorpia stepped in.

“Scorpia!” Entrapta moved quickly to wrap the taller woman up in her hair. “You’re unchipped! I mean, I knew you would be but it’s good to see you not trying to kill me!”

“It’s good to see you too Entrapta.” She looked over to Hordak but didn’t recognize him. “Still working? You should come celebrate.”

“I am celebrating! I found Hordak! I was just showing him the sequencing machine I built!”

“Uh- Sir!” Scorpia tried to salute and stand up straighter but Entrapta’s hair had her firmly held in place.

Hordak shook his head. “There’s no Fright Zone any more. No Horde. No reason to call me sir.”

“Yes Sir! I- that is- yes…” Scorpia looked down at Entrapta. “Do the other princesses know he’s here?”

Entrapta pulled her hair free from the hug and shrugged.

“Do you think it’s a good idea to have him in camp?” Scorpia asked, knowing her friend was not always concerned with what other people thought or felt.

“Where else was he going to go? My lab is here.” Entrapta said flatly as though that cleared everything up.

Hordak walked over to them. “I was the cause of much strife. Not everyone will be forgiving.” He said to Entrapta. “While I do not plan on causing any trouble, people will still be angry and want revenge or justice depending how they look at it.”

Entrapta’s eyes widened and she rose up again. “No! You were only trying to get back to Horde Prime! He’s gone now, you don’t have any armies left. They’ll understand. They have to.”

“I don’t know about that.” Scorpia sighed. “But don’t worry. I’m sure I can talk to the princesses and we can figure something out. They warmed up to Wrong Hordak after all. It’ll just take a little bit of time! For now though, maybe keep him in the tent.”

“A wise suggestion. We don’t want to cause panic.” Hordak tried to give Entrapta a comforting look, but he was too tired to try very hard. “I will just stay in here with you until the princesses come to an understanding.”

The purpled haired scientist looked worried, glancing between her friends. She had done so much to get Hordak back. SheRa had even freed him from Horde Prime, surely she wouldn’t have saved him just to punish him later.

“It’ll be ok.” Scorpia urged. “Just stay in here for now.” She waited for Entrapta to lower herself to the ground again before leaving the tent.

Entrapta’s gloved hands started to twist together nervously as she started to run numbers and simulations in her head of how quickly the princesses would want to attack Hordak once they knew he was here.

Hordak bent down and got on his knees so he was closer to her eye height. “Entrapta.” He said softly, waiting for her eyes to focus on him. “Force Captain Scorpia is correct. You shouldn’t worry about this. I have been on Etheria for many years, and I have never found the natives to be bloodthirsty. This fight is over, they will want to celebrate for now and won’t give me a second thought until all of this is back to normal.”

She looked down at her hands. “They were mad at me even after I started helping them. My bot designs did a lot of damage to their kingdoms.” She looked at him, panicked. “They’ll be mad at you too!”

He laughed. “Oh I’m sure of that.” He smiled at her. “I don’t care what they think of me.” He paused, then carefully and slowly put his arms around her. “I only care what you think.”

She sniffed, feeling tears rim her eyes as she brought her hands up to either side of his face and brought her forehead close to his. “I missed you.”

“I… couldn’t forget you.”

She gave a watery laugh and pulled him closer so she could hug him tightly.

Hordak buried his face in her neck, breathing her in. Machine oil, sweat, and her smell. He felt her hair wrap around them and he sighed contently. Things stopped feeling so disconnected. He felt grounded again, for the first time since he had learned she had been sent to Beast Island. He felt her shoulders trembling and tried to pull away to check on her.

“Entrapta?”

Her hair tightened and held him there. “I’m okay.” She said quietly. “Crying is a normal reaction to stress.”

“Oh”

“I think this may be the first time I stopped long enough to think about anything other than the tech and going to space and finding you and stopping Prime and tracing the signal and- and all of it.”

His hands took up most of her back, but he moved his arm to gently rub one of his thumbs along the back of her neck. “I understand.”

He lost track of time while they stayed there but finally her hair loosened its hold and pulled back. He reached up and brushed her cheek then froze as he realized what he had done.

“It’s alright.” She said quickly before he could pull his hand back. She reached up and wiped his cheek and he could feel the tears he hadn’t noticed before.

He gave a shaky sigh and finally let her go. He felt tired and achy. Not like before when he had his exoskeleton armor, just drained. He carefully stood back up but suddenly felt light headed. Her hair reacted and wrapped around him, holding him up. “Hordak!?”

“I’m alright, just tired.” He tried to assure her.

She lifted him completely off of the ground and sat him down on the edge of the cot. “You should get some rest. You were controlled by Prime directly, that could cause a lot more damage than the chips. Not to mention how long you were under his control before that and whatever he did to you to make you forget. I should take a sample and run a test. I can use Wrong Hordak as a control for comparison. I should-”

“Entrapta.” She looked over to Hordak who was calmly sitting on the cot. He pulled the canon from his arm and then pulled the cape from his shoulders. “I will feel much better after I rest. A lot has happened and I need time to process it all. I trust whatever tests you will run. For now, I think the fastest way I can recover is to rest.” He turned and pulled his legs on to the cot so he could lay down. “I am supposed to stay inside the tent anyway.”

She looked back at the screen and then to him, struggling with something for a moment before moving to his side and sitting down next to him on the cot as he laid back. He looked at her in surprise. “I’ll be right here.” She said quietly. He had never been quick to agree to rest before. She had seen him work nearly thirty six hours straight before. Usually it took imp badgering him to force him to even leave the sanctum. She hadn’t been much better of course, but she knew when her body needed to recharge and knew it would keep her at optimal proficiency. So if Hordak really was taking this seriously, he must have been feeling really terrible.

He smiled. “Thank you”

***

Entrapta opened her eyes and was sure she had slept for hours. From what she could see it was dark outside of the tent. She could hear the people outside, all cheerfully celebrating the end of the fighting. She groggily rubbed her palm into her eye as she looked around the dark tent. She paused, finding herself laying on the edge of the cot with one of Hordak’s arms around her and her head on his chest. She looked up but he was asleep. She didn’t remember dozing off, but obviously she had been just as exhausted.

The machines in the tent were still beeping and the party outside wasn’t much louder, so what had woken her up?

The arm around her tightened for a second and she realized Hordak was starting to get restless. He mumbled something and turned his head away from her, then turned it back and tightened his hold on her again. She watched his face for a moment as he flinched and moaned.

“Hordak. Hordak wake up, it’s just a nightmare.” She put her hand on his chest and gently shook him.

He gasped and jolted awake. He focused on her after a second and relaxed. “Sorry” He let go of her. “How long was I asleep?”

“A few hours. You were having a bad dream.”

He frowned, rubbing his eyes. “That’s all it was…” He sighed, looking at her and seemed to notice for the first time she was laying next to him. “I should give you your cot back.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m small.” She gave him a smile and he smiled back.

“Small is subjective, I’d say you were a perfect fit.”

“You think I’m perfect?”

His pal cheeks turned red. “I...yes”

Her smile widened for a moment before fading. “You were having a bad dream. Did you get any rest?”

He nodded. “I feel much better.” He carefully sat up so she could sit up next to him. “When I was first separated from Horde Prime… it was quick. There was no one to explain what had happened, nothing to tell me where I was or how far I truly was from the Horde. My mind struggled to piece together what had happened. Now after building my own life, after having him in my mind, looking at my memories… I know I was wrong.”

Entrapta frowned, leaning against him. “Wrong about what?”

“I was never a General in his army. I was not favored.” He said quietly. “It was a story that I told myself to fill in the blanks Horde Prime left in my life. Clones do not need any purpose other than to blindly follow. When I was suddenly cut off from the rest of my brothers my mind tried to stitch together anything that would make sense.”

She put her hand on top of his. “Your mind put together a narrative. Most people would have broken under that kind of stress.”

He nodded to show he heard her. “I know better now. I was one of millions. A replacement part with nothing to set me apart.”

“You have a past now.”

“I have a friend now.” He turned his hand over to hold hers. “Something I desperately needed then.”

“You have a lab partner.”

“A perfect lab partner.”


End file.
